Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I am trying to decide which class to choose for a fun WvW experience, and I would love your thoughts. I have a level 80 Warrior that I like in WvW, but I am looking for something a little different. Right now I am thinking thief or elementalist—I have both classes sitting at level 20 right now.

To help with this thread here are some of the things I am looking for in WvW. I know that some of these things cannot be met with one class, but I thought it would help to make this thread more useful.

1. I hate dying – I really hate dying and having to run back to the fight.
2. I like having a speed boost to make running back less painful.
3. I like to kill people or at least feel that I am visibly helping my team.

Can you help me? I would love to hear your thoughts and your reasoning.

Thank you!!

Thief: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4F8FcUCoyBQ

Elemental: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k6QPe1aKtHk

My main is an 80 Warrior (exotic Knight’s, Soldier runes, etc.) He is a beast, as I’m sure yours is too. But he can be a bit one-dimensional, as I’m sure you’ve also experienced.

I also have an 80 Elementalist and an 80 Thief (also 80 Guard/Mesmer/Engi, 60ish Necro). All were leveled heavily in WvW. Ele is my 2nd most played WvW class, with Thief being 3rd, so I think I can answer your question.

1.) While D/D Ele has incredible mobility, durability and escape abilities, I’m pretty sure everyone would agree that Thief is superior for the “I hate dying” category. Stealth is incredibly powerful, especially coupled with the rendering issue in WvW. Add in Infiltrator’s Arrow and you won’t be dying very often.

2.) Both classes get a 25% run speed signet. Thief has Arrow and Heartseeker for extra speed. Ele has multiple sources (perma if desired) of swiftness, as well as Ride the Lightning. I don’t know who the winner is here, it’s close.

3.) Staff Ele probably impacts the battlefield directly more than any other class, simply due to the sheer number of AE spells., many of which are combo fields. Thief has decent AE with Cluster Bomb, which becomes extremely powerful when used in point-blank range. D/D Ele and D/D Thief are similar in that they excel at taking down single targets quickly; Ele has more durability and good burst, while Thief has stealth evasion and higher burst. I would give Ele the slight edge in this category. However, Thieves also perform jobs such as picking off reinforcements, keeping zergs busy with stealth harassment, etc.

Hopefully this helps. Good luck with whichever you pick. Both are great WvW professions.

Solo -thief -elementarist
Help your team at maximum efficiency – no doubt guardian /warrior /necro / staf elementarist
As an thief you get few deaths while solo, but often you will feel useless , you cannot have same efficiency in an “zerg vs zerg”

donttread.9304:

Hello all,

I am trying to decide which class to choose for a fun WvW experience, and I would love your thoughts. I have a level 80 Warrior that I like in WvW, but I am looking for something a little different. Right now I am thinking thief or elementalist—I have both classes sitting at level 20 right now.

To help with this thread here are some of the things I am looking for in WvW. I know that some of these things cannot be met with one class, but I thought it would help to make this thread more useful.

1. I hate dying – I really hate dying and having to run back to the fight.
2. I like having a speed boost to make running back less painful.
3. I like to kill people or at least feel that I am visibly helping my team.

Can you help me? I would love to hear your thoughts and your reasoning.

Thank you!!

For your three requirements, I would say Thief without much hesitation. Overall, I personally prefer the ele. I think it is more rewarding and I have much, much more fun playing. I feel outright cheap on my thief. I also find that its much less challenging as a class, but ele may be TOO challenging for some.

The big difference is that with ele, they can be pretty unforgiving. If you mess up in a fight, there is a large chance you will get downed. You can mist form to your zerg, but thief’s down state is far from weak. If you mess up in a fight on a thief, just use one of your many stealths! Remember to include leap finishers through smoke fields (I believe you get access to two smoke fields, iirc). Also keep in mind that you will not actually render to your opponents for a couple seconds even after you render on your own screen. Whether you take advantage of this or not is up to you.

Overall mobility I would actually put pretty close, but uptime maintenance is perhaps a bit more involved on a ele.

If you were to ask the question without restriction, I would say ele. It takes more time to learn, you have to stay on your toes almost constantly, and mistakes can be deadly. That appeals to me personally, but certainly not everyone. Though, for group contribution, I would hand it to the ele. You can do some things with traits on the thief (like giving regen with shadow refuge) but it is more of a single target dps class. In small engagements, this can and will make a MASSIVE difference. However, in zerg vs zerg, taking out single targets are just drops in the bucket. Ele has better access to AoE.

Having read through all the replies here, I only have one answer for you and that is:
Roll a necromancer.

We might be seriously bugged, but we are also kinda OP when played right and have about 3 health bars.

Enjoy!

if you like killing and mobility then level a thief. Ele are good but I have never seen a ele do amazing damage, they tend to slowly wear you down. Meanwhile a thieves damage is amazing. They hit harder than anything in the game, have stealth so they are hard to hit back and the damage is much higher than other classes on average. oh yeah, 50% speed increase + 2 blinks = you’ll be across the map in no time.

Just by the way: WvW isn’t about 1v1, it’s about playing as team (aka zerg). Sure, you can solo things, especially as thief, but you should consider playing a profession which supports your group. Ele is: lots of AoE damage, AoE healing, AoE buffs, AoE whatever – possibly the best group support you can get in WvW.

I see you didn’t mention any interest in the ranger.

sounds like you’re on the right track and good to go no matter what you decide from here.

Both are great for WvW I would recommend Elem. 1vs1 Elem can take down any class easily but with thief it is a bit more tricky to fight against Mesmers and Elementalists. On the other hands in 1vs Many pvp thief has better control of the combat if you feel like things are getting ugly you can always stealth and leave and restart again but with Elem it’s a bit harder to run away. All this info I am giving you considering your enemy knows how to play. Thief is great at sweeping trash players you will be taking down all non skilled and low levels in seconds and focus harder enemies. Elem also AoE the kitten out of groups. I play a balanced thief with full toughness crit and power it’s great but I believe elem is more fun and more OP in most cases. Combination of skills you can use is Elem gives you great opportunity in thief it’s a bit repeatative so you might get bored in a while.

I think you should play both.

An Elementalist, through their weapons, can contribute in several different ways, which is nice. Some of them are relatively safe and low-stress.

Seems to me a thief is much more uniform in playstyle in that it’s always about getting up into someone else’s business. But I think it’s also the more survivable option, overall (frankly, I find being the kamikaze Elementalist to be fun sometimes).

But why limit yourself? Leveling in this game is not a lengthy process. Bring ’em both up, and you can play whatever suits your mood.